Introduction (6-27-09)

My name is Wade. I've lived in central Indiana all my life. I was raised on a farm. I have grown my own food. I have killed my own food. I have been taught to work hard in all that I do. I was raised a good Christian, God-fearing boy. I was raised in the Brady Bunch era but looked more like a kid from Mayberry.

Like most people, my religion was given to me, rather than chosen for myself. Well, two out of three of them anyway. I was born into a United Methodist family nearly 40 years ago. I converted to Catholicism, my wife's faith, following the birth of our daughter. Recently, I've begun some serious introspection and my faith is changing... shifting... and although perhaps a little disturbing to those close to me, including some serious exploration of Eastern religions including Mayahan Buddhism.

The story begins like this...

As a child my weekends nearly always fit the following formula: 1. Spend the night with my grandparents on Saturday night. 2. Get up and go to church where my grandmother played the organ and my grandfather sang in beautiful baritone harmony from the back pew. 3. Spend Sunday afternoon with my extended family, eating, playing in the yard and enjoying our time together.

During my early years, religion was about the church, the people in the congregation and time spent in a particular brick building in rural west-central Indiana. I have lots of fond memories of those times, but I realize that the United Methodist Church, although providing a good foundation for spiritual growth wasn't really what drew me to religion and spirituality.

Like many people in rural Indiana, I grew up, went away to college and got married. I stopped going to any church and, although I spent a great deal of time studying various religions, never found one that completely fit my belief system.

After college, the birth of our daughter included some pretty hairy medical situations for my wife and daughter and in a moment of dispair, I made a bargain that if my wife and daughter lived through childbirth, that I would go back to church. At that time, it made the most sense to attend a Roman Catholic Church for two reasons: 1. My wife had converted to Catholicism in college. 2. We lived across the street from a Catholic church.

For the next ten years, I attended mass regularly, joined the Knights of Columbus and spent a lot of my time enjoying the social aspects of church, while believing some of the church's teachings, ignoring others and feeling a little bit out of sync with much of what the church stood for.

A couple of years ago, as is common in many churches, my wife and I found ourselves in the middle of a socially-focused battle between the priest and members of the congregation. The conflict became so serious that we walked away from our church of ten years. I spent the next year and a half (or so) visiting all kinds of churches in the area. I visited Baptist, Methodist, Unitarian Universalist, and a few others. Of those congregations, only the Unitarian Universalist (UU) seemed to make any sense to me--"all come and worship in the best way that they can"--seemed pretty reasonable to me. Of the two UU churches in the area, one was a much better fit than the other--unfortunately it was an hour drive from our home, which resulted in us attending very infrequently. Eventually, we fell away from attending church altogether again.

A few months ago, I decided to give the Catholic church one more try. After swallowing my pride and attending our original Catholic church a few Sundays I was able to accomplish two things: 1. Bury the hatchet with the priest and reconnect with many old friends. 2. Realize that my connection to the church was to the people there and had little to do with a true faith-based impulse to attend.

I knew that my spiritual quest had to be rekindled and that in order to remain true to myself, I needed to continue exploring various religions and spiritual systems.

Next time... How Yoga turned to meditation and how Buddhism is sneaking into the heart of an Indiana farm boy.